Automatic error-term separation approach in InSAR time-series analysis
and application to Arima-Takatsuki fault zone, western Japan
Abstract
InSAR time-series (InSAR-TS) analysis enables us to obtain the
displacement time-series by using a number of SAR images repeatedly
acquired on the area. Among the factors affecting the accuracy of the
InSAR-TS analysis, this study focuses on three factors that may severely
affect the signal detection limit: 1) the selection of the reference
point (determining the offset in each interferogram), 2) ramp-type
artifact that originate from inaccuracy in the orbit data or ionospheric
disturbance, and 3) altitude-correlated tropospheric noise. Fukushima et
al. (2019, Earth, Planets and Space) proposed an InSAR-TS analysis
method to simultaneously solve for the displacement time-series and the
error terms mentioned above as well as the error in the digital
elevation model. In the proposed method, the unwrapped phase in
interferograms is assumed to be composed of a linear combination of the
LOS displacement, offset, planar ramp, altitude-correlated phase, and
error in the used digital elevation model. A set of unwrapped
small-baseline interferograms is then inverted to simultaneously obtain
the displacement time-series and the parameters describing the error
terms under the minimum norm condition on the displacement time-series.
In this study, I applied the above-mentioned method after some updates
such as introduction of the temporal constraint adopted by the NSBAS
algorithm (Doin et al., 2011) and data masking, on the ALOS-2 data
acquired around the Arima-Takatsuki fault zone in western Honshu, Japan.
Data of four different Paths (20 and 21 from descending orbit, 127 and
128 from ascending orbit) obtained between August 2014 and March 2021
were analyzed. Some of the original interferograms contained severe
noise such as a phase ramp equivalent to approximately 25 cm of LOS
displacements. The average velocity field obtained by applying the
method captured a relative range decrease of a few mm/year on the
southern side of the fault, consistent with the results obtained from
Sentinel-1 data analysis. Given the fact that the Sentinel-1 dataset had
much favorable conditions (much larger number of data and much smaller
ionospheric noise), the consistency in the average velocity field
suggests the effectiveness of the proposed approach.